Day 4: COVID-19 Uncertainty & Rock Candy

I’m so uncertain on so many things at this point:

• What’s going to happen with this virus?
• How long are we going to be stuck here?
• When they do release us to get out is it really ok to get out?
• If I order two gallons of milk at a time, am I really a bad person? (Just kidding- I know I’m not because my kids almost drink 1 gallon a day by the time we’ve had cereal and milk at meals).
• Am I doing the right thing by making them do some school stuff while they’re out?
• Am I playing with them enough and enjoying the memories?
• Do I need to be considering conserving food in case things do actually shut down and we can’t leave or will we be able to leave for food?
• Are my construction jobs that are going to get shut down?
• How am I going to keep up working from home and homeschooling for this long?
• Am I taking advantage of the slow sales cycle to do enough marketing, writing, business planning, etc.?

My mind races with all of this.  In the midst of that, I’m probably over-compensating by planning for my children.  Scheduling/planning always makes me feel better, whether it’s a false sense of certainty or not.  Whatever it is, it seems to be working out ok.

With that said, here’s what we did today:

• All
  • Made rock candy jars- they each got to help with one part of the process.
  • We had more trampoline/outside time today than we have had.  They needed to burn lots of energy and we were happy to let them.

• Littles- Pre-K
  • Scholastic Learn at Home- Day 2:  Living things- plants (watch a movie and read a book).  Check out his free resource from Scholastic.  They enjoyed this, which we did during breakfast.  We’re all about killing two birds with one stone around here.
  • Read Horton Hear’s a Who- what is your favorite part of the story?  What are some rhyming words?
    • This lead to reading The Lorax.
    • When asked what is your favorite part of the story, Kate said the green hair trees.  Yes, Kate, that’s my favorite part too.
  • Dr. Seuss rhyming worksheet from Children’s University- this went well the second time around

• • Practice sight words- they hate this.  I’m going to be looking at doing flashcards for next time if I can.
  • Kate made Aunt Haley a card today.
• Anna- 3rd
  • Word problems worksheet- from mathfactcafe.com  We will have to finish this tomorrow.  This was the hardest part of our day.  We have been doing tutoring at school for this but now that she’s having to work with us on it, I’m afraid I’m not all that great at helping in the ways she needs.
  • Imagine Math- her teacher is able to track her progress on here.
  • Prodigy Math- she love this since its more of a game than Imagine Math.
  • Write a letter/make a card for her BFF.  They exchanged letters today, which was super sweet.
  • Anna read two “Llama, Llama” books to her sisters without even being asked.  Oh, my heart, that girl is sweet!

• • Scholastic Learn at Home- Day 4
    • She learned about people eating bugs and worms from this.  It had an article, followed by a video that she really enjoyed.
  • Did math while cooking dinner together
• Will- 5th
  • I’ve had this on the list for three days now and STILL haven’t done it:  Type up a letter to his teacher describing his favorite things about her class and anything he’d like to do more of in her class. After he completes the letter, re-read it looking for edits that can be made.  Then we will go over it and we can print and mail it to her (if she wants to give us her address or we can just email it).  I got this from Arlington ISD’s new At Home Learning HUB that has some good resources for different grade levels.
  • Read a few chapters of his chapter book
  • Watch/read along Johnny Tremain with his teacher’s video.  She amazes me with her awesome creativity!  Check out her video she made: https://youtu.be/OErzYCwx3Sc 
  • Place Value Work- from his teacher on Google Classroom
  • Start working on the Learn about States worksheet I made up.  My mom taught elementary history and has a love for learning about states, so I can’t take credit for the idea.  Thanks Mom.
    • Here’s the Learning the States Worksheet I made.  Feel free to download and share with anyone who might like to do it with their kiddos.  I attached in Word format so you could edit to meet your needs.
    • He got all of this done except the part about planning the trip.

Here’s what we’re doing tomorrow. 

I actually feel like we should just do a half day tomorrow so if they’re doing well on everything, we will stop after lunch to give everyone a “long weekend.”  Does this feel like the longest weekend ever though already???  Like it’s so long you feel obligated to work….

• Littles- Pre-K
  • Read There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.  We don’t have the book so we’re going to watch it read on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIJ-G7KvH_Q
    • Ask what would a wocket look like?
    • Draw a wocket.
  • Count the forks and spoons in the kitchen.
    • which has more?
    • Which has less?
  • Count to 100- we’ll do this on the trampoline maybe
  • Make a Rubberband Rocket Launcher:  http://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com/2012/02/rubber-band-rocket-launcher.html
• Anna- 3rd
  • Finish word problem worksheet from today.
  • Make an electronic card for a friend and send it.
  • Imagine Math
  • Find a chapter book to start reading together.
• Will- 5th
  • Spell a word he’s feeling using objects around the house and post it in his class’s SeeSaw
  • Rounding decimals slides on Google Classroom
  • Do a science activity in nearpod
  • Read a few chapters of his chapter book
  • Watch/read along Johnny Tremain with his teacher’s video.
  • Finish his states activity and present it to us- I’m going to let him use Google slides since he really likes doing projects like that typically.
• All
  • Look at the rock candy and see how it has changed
    • Have bigs write down what has changed since yesterday and why they think it has changed.
  • Make a Rubberband Rocket Launcher:  http://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com/2012/02/rubber-band-rocket-launcher.html
  • How to call 911 and what to do in an emergency.